Living In The Twilight
by Twitchy02
Summary: On a mission near the beginning of the war Heero stays in a small town and encounters something of interest...not so great summary
1. Twilight

Heero sighed contentedly as he walked leisurely down the fog filled streets of the small town they were staying in.

The morning twilight hours provided just enough light for him to be able not to worry about tripping and the fog eliminated the possibility of anyone seeing him, though even if they did it wouldn't mean anything.

As he passed by the local church he felt a tug to go and take a closer look and though not one to usually give in to feelings such as these in this moment he allowed himself the small indulgence.

As he got closer to the small, old building he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. As quietly as possible he pulled the door open and crept inside.

There, kneeling in the pews a few rows up, was a shadowed figure. Beside them on the ground was a small, asian styled lantern casting a golden glow on the surrounding area.

Slowly, curiosity building inside of him, he defied for the first time in a long while what he knew he should be doing and silently made his way around the outside of the large room, carefully keeping to the shadows.

As he neared the front of the church he caught his first glimpse of her face. The face was young, possibly even years younger than him and seemed almost like it belonged to some fey fairytale creature he'd heard of in his childhood.

Even as he stood in the shadows admiring her beauty a lone tear trailed down her cheek.

And suddenly, as though the sight of the tear had unlocked an array of internal commands that even his most vigorous training hadn't touched upon, he found himself standing before her, his finger reaching out to brush the tear away.

She looked up with a silent gasp as his finger touched her soft skin, but as their eyes made contact he found nothing but swirling innocent confusion in her large, expressive dark green orbs.

It was the first time in many many years that he'd seen someone look at him with anything but cold calculation or threatened suspicion, and the difference filled him with a feeling he couldn't explain. It was like walking through the rain after just pushing yourself as far as you could go, or stepping into a hot shower after waking up on a freezing morning, or awakening from a nightmare that just kept going.

She seemed to find something in that moment that even he hadn't caught for she simply nodded and turned back to what she had been doing, this time moving a few feet over and leaving a space in which he could kneel beside her if he'd wanted to.

It didn't feel right though, to place himself so close to something to pure and innocent when it was something to which he could no even begin to compare. His hands were already stained, despite his youth, his eyes tinted with the cold, calculating weapon the Dr. had created in him.

So he left. Doing what his training told him he should have done from the beginning he walked away, fading back into the shadows of the twilight and making his way to the hideout.

He should never have left the hideout at all, let alone be seen, yet the next morning he found himself back outside the church.

He entered and walked silently back to the spot at the side in the shadows where he'd first seen her face.

To his surprise, the girl had again left a spot in the pew beside her.

Each morning he had gone back, and each morning she had been there, leaving a spot for him.

As time went by, despite having never taken her silent offer, he began to think of that spot as a place he belonged. A place that was his and always would be.

Then it finally came, the day he had been dreading since that first trip to the church.

The next day, he would leave for a new safehouse.

He watched her for the last time from the shadows. The trip had been exactly as all the others had, but this one was the end, and he knew it. And that changed things.

This would probably be the last time he ever saw her. The last time he ever returned to this town or this church or ever saw his spot or the girl again.

She was the same as she had been the first time he'd seen her, and all the times after that. She looked like an angel, pure and innocent. And somehow, in this church and in her presence, even if she never knew he had been, he felt clean.

Clean, but not pure. You can't be pure after doing and seeing the things he had. It isn't possible. But they needed to be done, and it was only fair that he had done them, and in doing so spared others from having to. He would save this angel and the others like it. Even if she died now, or later on in the coming war, she would still be pure, because he had given that up so that she wouldn't have to.

------

3 Years later...

He'd changed a lot through the war. Matured. Seen more than enough of humanity's faults to last an eternity. But enough of their virtues to know that they could pull through, and enough to pull him through.

And now, after all that had happened and all he had done it was over. His task was complete and he would never have to do anything again. Money the Docs had left behind would insure that. He and the rest of the pilots had decided to simply leave the account open for any of them to use. There was enough money and not enough selfishness in their group for the money to last long past the end of their days so why bother dealing with making new accounts and splitting it?

Anyways, they'd all moved on and started out new lives, he, Duo, Trowa and Wufei had committed to Preventors, though Quatre worked with us every once and awhile. With this type of work though killing was something avoided instead of a large part, so it was much easier on all of them.

Slowly but surely they'd been facing their demons since the end of the first war, having only a small set back with the coup d'etat. And surely enough, the nightmares only came every once in a while now. The flashbacks at casual words and phrases that meant nothing to anyone else slipping away and becoming normal memories instead of the biting scenes playing over and over for hours after they came.

So here he was, revisiting the last of his ghosts in a small town near an old safehouse. Walking through the fog in the early morning twilight.


	2. Ending 1: Open

Surprise washed over him as he stepped up to the church to find the door slightly ajar, just as it always had been.

As he entered the church he found the girl, kneeling where she always had, and still leaving the spot, just for him.

He didn't bother going around the outside this time though, he knew his place now. He walked silently to the last pew and knelt down.

He wasn't religious, though he accepted the beliefs of others, but here, in this moment, it wasn't about religion. His place was here, watching from afar. He would never be like the girl, though he'd always known that. But he no longer wished his spot was there, kneeling beside and being equal to someone so pure. He belonged with the others who had done the unthinkable. And it wasn't something that he could change, simply something to accept.

He knew that now.


	3. Ending 2: Closed

As he reached the door, he found it closed and locked, just as he'd expected it to be the first time he'd come.

A small smile found it's way to his lips as he made his way back through the fog. The angel had left, and though the girl could probably be found sleeping in one of the houses, the angel that he had found in her would remain as it always had been, pure and innocent and without the humanity that he had seen corrupt so many.

Pure, as he never would be.

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Now that you've finished reading both, PLEASE tell me what you thought and which ending you liked best...I couldn't decide... 


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